Establishing an epigenetic lens to explore cancer and infectious diseases

We are talking all things DNA methylation in this episode, providing a brief explanation of epigenetics and the technologies involved in the study of DNA methylation, before exploring the application of these techniques in the study of infectious diseases and cancer. Revealing all of this information is my guest Chloé Goldsmith, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Canberra University, whose research focuses on DNA methylation, Hepatitis B Virus and the link between lifestyle and the epigenome. Chloé explains the strengths and weaknesses of the different techniques used to explore DNA methylation and highlights the advances in long-read sequencing that are dramatically improving this aspect of epigenomic research. Chloé also discusses some of the most interesting insights that she has gained by taking a single-cell and single-molecule approach to her research and highlights some of the recent findings in the field that have caught her attention and broadened our understanding of epigenetics in disease.Listen today to find out what functions remain to be improved for more insightful epigenetic studies and for some key insights into the future of the field.Contents:Introduction: 00:00-01:45Introducing the epigenetics and the different types of epigenetic regulation: 00:45-02:55Techniques involved in the exploration of DNA methylation: 03:55-05:50Challenges of bisulfite conversion techniques: 05:50-07:15Recent developments in DNA methylation technologies: 07:15-09:40Long reads vs short reads for epigenetic studies: 09:40-10:45Epigenetics in infectious disease research: 10:45-13:15Lifestyle, the epigenome and HBV: 13:15-16:00Epigenetics in cancer research: 16:00-18:05Recent developments in our epigenetic understanding of disease: 18:05-19:40One area of technology that needs to be improved: 19:40-21:50Aspirations for the field: 21:50-23:25 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.